Thinking outside the Billiard Ball: Cognatic nationalism and performing a Maori public sphere

Abstract

Over the course of the twentieth century, the marae plaza in New Zealand (a ceremonial courtyard in front of a traditional carved meeting house) has become an arena in which the relationship between Maori and the settler government can be contested, constructed, and legitimized. It thus functions in ways similar to the Habermasian "public sphere," with the crucial difference that it presupposes a different kind of polity, made up of different kinds of agents.